{"id":2077369,"date":"2026-08-04T17:55:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2077369"},"modified":"2026-08-04T17:55:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:55:31","slug":"spotify-says-ai-remix-tool-has-strong-momentum-and-ai-investments-are-in-our-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2077369","title":{"rendered":"Spotify Says AI Remix Tool Has \u2018Strong Momentum\u2019 and AI Investments Are \u2018In Our Control\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2277532283-e1785864483760.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tSpotify said on Tuesday (Aug. 4) it added one million more new premium subscribers in the second quarter than expected, which helped to offset a slight miss on its guidance for total monthly user growth and helped meet revenue growth targets.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpotify\u2019s total 777 million monthly average users generated 14% revenue growth of 4.777 million euros ($5.546 billion), in line with earlier guidance. The streamer beat guidance on its all-important gross margin, which expanded by 193 basis points to 33.4%, and on operating income, which totaled 655 million euros ($748 million).<\/p>\n

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\"ISTANBUL,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tMerlin Signs Licensing Agreement With Spotify for AI Remixing\u00a0Tool\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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    Ariel King<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  • <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n\tThis was the first time Spotify\u2019s co-CEOs Alex Norstr\u00f6m<\/strong> and Gustav S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m<\/strong> had spoken publicly to investors and analysts following the company\u2019s investor presentation day in May, and they said new products like their ticket reservation, AI playlisting and remixing tools showed strong momentum, while investments in AI and marketing were \u201centirely in our control.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tOperating expenses rose 3% to 941 million euros ($1.08 billion) on investments in technology, including AI, and marketing, the company said. The company\u2019s stock was down 0.78% to $482.79 a share around 2:30 p.m. in New York.<\/p>\n

    \n\tHere are the highlights from Spotify\u2019s second-quarter earnings and key takeaways from a conference call held by its top executives.<\/p>\n

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    • Gross profit rose 21% to 1.6 billion euros ($1.83 billion).<\/li>\n
    • Gross profit margin expanded to 33.4%.<\/li>\n
    • Seven million net new premium subscribers from Q1 beat earlier guidance for six million net new subscribers, for 300 million total premium subscribers.<\/li>\n
    • Spotify added 11 million net new ad-supported monthly active users (MAUs) for a total of 494 million.<\/li>\n
    • Net new MAUs of 16 million missed targets for 17 million and brought total MAUs to 777 million.<\/li>\n
    • Operating income of 655 million euros ($748 million) represented a 13.7% margin.<\/li>\n
    • Revenue from premium subscribers rose 15% to 4.3 billion euros ($4.91 billion) from a year ago.<\/li>\n
    • Premium average revenue per user rose 7% to 4.89 euros ($5.585 billion) from a year ago.<\/li>\n
    • Revenue from ad-supported users edged just 1% higher to 446 million euros ($509 million).<\/li>\n
    • Operating expenses rose 3% to 941 million euros ($1.08 billion).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

      Artist Adoption vs. Label License Agreements for AI Remix Tool<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n\tIndie label collective Merlin announced it is joining Universal Music Group\u00a0(UMG) in licensing the music of artists and creators who opt in to be remixed by certain Spotify premium subscribers using AI tools. Artists, songwriters and others covered by Merlin and UMG\u2019s agreements must agree to participate, and Spotify says they will compensate and credit them through the soon-to-be-launched tool.<\/p>\n

      \n\tAsked by analyst Rich Greenfield if they were surprised more artists were not consenting for their music to be used for the initiative, S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m said they know many are skeptical of AI music, but they are seeing strong momentum for the idea. <\/p>\n

      \n\t\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is something different, and artists see that our products are about real artists, not fake artists, and in the case of remixes, real artists with real voices,\u201d S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m said. \u201cThis thing doesn\u2019t exist, and artists remain excited about that, and consumers remain excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n\tAlthough he did not give a timeline, S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m said they expect to roll out a preview of the AI Remix model to some users, which will allow them to trial the product before they have a complete music catalog. <\/p>\n

      \n\t\u201cWhat we will do is allow fans of a certain artist to start making remixes with songs from that artist,\u201d collecting feedback from users to inform and improve the model, he said. \u201cWe have now 777 million people and music fans to do reinforcement learning with, which is why we think we\u2019re very well positioned in this business. So that\u2019s kind of what you should expect as the next step. We\u2019re going to launch the product when it\u2019s ready, and we think it\u2019s good enough and it has the right appeal to consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n\tS\u00f6derstr\u00f6m\u00a0said they do not need licenses with every major music company when they launch, reminding listeners that Spotify did not have permission to stream certain acts, including the Beatles and Metallica, when it first launched. \u201cWe would like to have as many artists as possible, obviously, but we don\u2019t expect to have all artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Nearly 100,000 Tickets \u201cReserved\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n\tReserved\u00a0\u2014 Spotify\u2019s ticketing initiative that identifies an artist\u2019s most passionate fans and holds a pair of concert tickets for them\u00a0\u2014 was used for nearly 100,000 tickets since it launched on June 23. Running in partnership with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, eligible premium subscribers get notified when they\u2019re able to reserve tickets to shows by artists like\u00a0ROLE MODEL.<\/p>\n

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      \"Reserved<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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      \t\t\t\t\tSpotify\u2019s Head of Music Announces \u2018Reserved\u2019 Ticketing Initiative: \u2018As AI Proliferates, Real World Experiences Mean That Much\u00a0More\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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        Kristin Robinson<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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        \n\t\u201cFor some tours, we sold through 100% of our allocations, and Live Nation upsized them mid-run,\u201d Norstr\u00f6m said, calling Reserved \u201cone of the most wonderful improvements\u2026 in our history. The biggest fans get first access. Artists get their most dedicated audience in the room, and every seat we fill makes a Spotify subscription more valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

        Expenses are \u201centirely in our control\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n\tAs investors have grown concerned about Big Tech companies\u2019 investments in AI, Spotify\u2019s executives looked to head off those fears, saying that though their operating expenses grew by 3% from a year ago, they are under control.<\/p>\n

        \n\t\u201cThe operating expense growth is not coming from people; it\u2019s coming from compute and marketing,\u201d S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m said, following comments about the company\u2019s AI efficiency gains. \u201cBoth of these are variable and entirely in our control, and we will continue to invest in AI on our terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n\tSpotify is vendor agnostic, meaning it uses models from Anthropic and other AI companies, and strictly controls its usage of these platforms and consumers\u2019 usage, \u201cwhich means that the cost curve is also under our control,\u201d S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m said.<\/p>\n

        Spotify is introducing \u201cfriction\u201d to free users\u2019 accounts in countries like India, Indonesia <\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n\tSpotify says its ad-supported tier has grown faster than expectations in emerging markets including India and Indonesia, and they are introducing changes to try to convert more of these users to premium subscribers.<\/p>\n

        \n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve made changes like, you know, tweaking the sign-up to get higher quality MAU throughput,\u201d Norstr\u00f6m said. \u201cWe\u2019ve deprecated a lower-end Android device support, which builds the business and makes it more efficient for us. We\u2019ve carefully introduced some friction in both ad load and some limitations in our free tier. All of these things are positioning us for more monetization.\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n\tNorstr\u00f6m said that while this will affect MAUs in the third quarter, they believe it will ultimately increase their subscription penetration in emerging markets similar to the increases it has seen across Latin America. <\/p>\n

        \n\t\u201cWe do not expect it to come at the expense of our subscriber growth,\u201d Norstr\u00f6m said.<\/p>\n

        \"Billboard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

        [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/spotify-q2-2026-ai-remix-tool-has-strong-momentum\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2277532283-e1785864483760.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Spotify said on Tuesday (Aug. 4) it added one million more new premium subscribers in the second quarter than expected, which helped to offset a slight miss on its guidance for total monthly user growth and helped meet revenue growth targets. Spotify\u2019s total 777 million monthly average users generated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2077369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2077369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2077369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2077369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2077369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}